PEANUT BUTTER PUDDING

Last week I got a weird idea for peanut butter pudding; the process was a lot more complicated than I thought it was going to be. I tried several Internet recipes and none of them were exactly what I was looking for. Picky-picky husband was my Guinea pig taste tester and the first spoon full of each new recipe elicited those serious "brow furrows" that make all cooks cringe.

I didn't let that slow me down in my quest for a great "kid pudding". My next move was to start combining and tweaking recipes... the richness from this one ...the consistency from that one ... the sweet-factor from another one. The final result brought a "pudding face smile" to old Picky-picky AND the grand kids. This one IS a keeper!!!

I layered this recipe with sliced bananas and Hershey chocolate syrup, but next time I think I'll try layering it with crushed chocolate wafers ... Yummm!!!

This pudding is rich, creamy, peanut butter-y and oh so easy to make!!

2/3 cup dark brown sugar (light brown is OK, but dark brown is better)

2 level tablespoons of corn starch

1/8 teaspoon salt

1¾ cups whole milk (I've used 2% in a pinch)

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan that has a heavy bottom, whisk together the brown sugar, corn starch and salt. This step helps the cornstarch from clumping-lumping when you add the liquid.

After the sugar, cornstarch and salt are whisked together, slowly add the milk and cream. Stir to make sure everything is mixed well.

Bring to a boil, over medium high heat, stirring constantly. When this mixture gets nice and thick, add the peanut butter and whisk until it is totally melted and pudding just starts to boil again, (takes about 30 more seconds). Remove from heat and add vanilla extract, mix well.

Pour into a pretty serving dish (or individual dishes) and lay plastic wrap directly on top of the hot pudding (make sure the plastic is actually touching the pudding) so a "skin" doesn't form on the pudding as it cools.  Chill for 2-3 hours or overnight.

What a great recipe for ANY kids birthday party!!

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A Tale Of Two Dinners-Meatballs & Meatloaf

You will get two good dinners from this one ground

 beef mixture. One for now and 

one for the freezer..... you choose.

Meatballs & Meatloaf

2 lbs. ground chuck
1 small Italian sausage, about 3 oz.
Place the beef in a large mixing bowl. Remove the sausage casing and add to the  bowl.

1/2 onion, cut up
1 stalk celery, cut up
1 small carrot, cut up
1 garlic clove
1/4 C parsley
2 slices white bread, torn up
In a food processor, add the onion, celery, carrot, garlic and parsley.

Chop until small.

 Then add the torn bread pieces. 

Pulse a few times to blend in.

Add to the bowl with the meat.

1/4 C ketchup
1 C bread crumbs
1/2 C Parmesan/Romano cheese
1/2 C milk
1/2 t salt
1 egg
Add these ingredients to the bowl. Using your hands, mix until well combined.

Divide the mixture in half.

 For the meatballs, roll into 12 smooth round balls.

For the meatloaf, shape into a loaf to fit a 9x5 loaf

 pan. Wrap well and freeze.

Date with a label.

Good idea to also tape on the cooking instructions. 

To cook the meatballs: Heat a large frying pan
 until hot. Add 2 T olive oil and heat 30 seconds. 

Add the prepared meatballs and brown.  

Gently turn the meatballs, using two spoons
 until browned on all sides. 

Stir in sauce and let simmer 25-30 minutes.

You can use your favorite spaghetti sauce or 

make my sauce by adding:

 2 cloves minced garlic stirred into the pan.

then add:

1- 28oz can chopped or crushed tomatoes

1 t Italian herbs

1 t sugar

1/2 t salt

1/4 t red pepper flakes.

Tonights dinner.

Another homemade dinner waiting for you 

in the freezer for when you have no time

to cook. You'll like that! 

To cook the meatloaf: 

Place the thawed meatloaf in a 9x5 loaf pan, cover 

the top with 1/4 C ketchup and bake @350 for 1 hour.

Enjoy!

Links: Designs By Golllum,
My 1929 Charmer

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Fresh from the Oven

Nothing can beat the delicious homemade bake, especially when they just come out fresh from oven.

To have a beautiful ending of this lovely month, let me share three pictures including the recipes of the cake/cookies that I baked quickly for my family during the month of February.
They were baked in a late afternoon, for our afternoon snack and the pictures were taken in our kitchen table. Just

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GREAT PIE CRUST

A We have all made (and eaten) pie crusts that are flavorless, flat tasting, sort of soggy and, little more than something "necessary" to hold the fruit filling, ha ha!! Well, that does NOT describe today's classic pie crust.

This pie crust is absolutely delicious. It makes three single crust pie shells and bakes up very flaky, very flavorful and very tender. Picky-picky husband RAVED about this pie crust (and he is NOT a rave kind of guy, if you know what I mean).

This dough is extremely easy to work with and because there is a little sugar in it, it bakes to a beautiful deep golden color. You will NOT be disappointed with this pie crust recipe!!

Click on this photo to get a better look at the pie crust.

4 cups all purpose flour
1¾ cups butter flavored Crisco
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
½ cup cold water

Mix the flour, sugar and salt, then cut the butter flavored Crisco into it with a pastry cutter (or two forks) until the mixture is crumbly.

Whisk the egg into the cold water, then pour it into the dry mixture. Mix till everything is moistened but do not overwork it.  Let the dough sit for about 10 minutes before you roll it out.

The recipe calls for chilling the dough for 30 minutes, but I don't find that is necessary.  Roll out the dough and use it in your favorite pie recipe.

NOTE: I always brush my top crust with a mixture of 1 egg white whisked with a tablespoon of cold water. Whisk it thoroughly, then brush your top crust with just a little bit of it, then sprinkle with granulated sugar before you bake it.

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Traditional Melting Moment; Bangket Keju

We recognize 'Melting Moments' as a classic cookies that got the named because it does melt in our mouth. To make this type of cookie, we need to replace some of the flour with corn flour (cornstarch). I think that is the key of the 'melting in the mouth' part.It was a couple of weeks ago, I tried a new recipe that the print-out had been pined on my soft board for a few months; called Bangket

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Soto Ayam Lamongan

Soto Ayam, the traditional chicken soup is one of our ultimate cold weather favorites. As a one dish meal, all the 'cook' ingredients are served in one bowl. It's delicious fragnant chicken soup.Actually, this type of traditional chicken soup is popular in almost every parts of this country. This time I cooked the one from Lamongan, East Java. The ingredients, the flavor, and also the cordiments

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SWEET LEMON CURD

There are a ton of lemon curd recipes out there and they are all basically made from fresh lemons, sugar, butter and eggs cooked together. The main difference between the recipes is the degree of sweetness.  We like our lemon curd a little on the sweeter side, so I use 1½ cups of sugar in my recipe.  I've seen other recipes that use only ½ cup of sugar for every three lemons...talk about tart!!

There are a million uses for this sweet lemon curd. You can use it between cake layers, or as a cupcake filling. You can use it on hot scones or even toast. You can fold it into sweetened whipped cream for a delicious mousse, anything your imagination can come up with. Slightly sweet, silky smooth and inexpensive to make, you will love this recipe.

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (3 or 4 lemons)
1½ cups granulated sugar
¼ pound of unsalted butter (room temperature)
4 extra large eggs
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Don't waste your time, effort and money making lemon curd with anything but good fresh lemons. I use lemon juice in a bottle for some things, but not for this recipe. 

Wash, rinse and dry your lemons before you zest them. Be very careful that you only use the bright yellow part of the peeling. Stay away from the white layer underneath because it is BITTER.  Zest three lemons.

Put the granulated sugar and the zest of 3 lemons into a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.

In a different bowl, cream the room temperature butter until smooth, then beat in the lemon sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then the lemon juice and salt. Beat until smooth.

Pour the mixture into a saucepan that has a heavy bottom (this will keep the mixture from scorching easily). Cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes) stirring constantly.

The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees or just below a simmer.  Keep a careful eye on it and keep stirring.

Press the cooked curd through a strainer to filter out any cooked zest pieces and/or tiny lumps.

Straining it is not absolutely necessary, but it insures a silky smooth curd.

Lay some plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the hot curd, and chill in the fridge.

NOTE: Zest the lemons before you cut and squeeze them.



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CAKE MIX FIX

I am not a big fan of cake mixes, but I DO enjoy a good cake mix based recipe. I recently tried this versatile, ultra moist and flavorful recipe; it was a huge hit with my family.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can change the flavor combination to just about anything you can imagine, since the main ingredients are just a commercial cake mix, similar flavor  pudding mix and similar flavor baking chips.

Today, I made a butterscotch version of this recipe, using a yellow cake mix, butterscotch pudding mix and butterscotch baking chips....yum!!!  (see flavor combo suggestions below).

The original recipe was for a chocolate version; here is the basic recipe:

(1) 18¼ ounce devils food cake mix (ignore the directions on the box)
(1) 5.9 ounce instant chocolate pudding mix (ignore the directions on the box)
2 cups semi-sweet MINI chocolate chips (see note)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water

IMPORTANT FIRST STEP: Put the DRY cake mix, DRY pudding mix and mini chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl and stir to coat the chocolate chips (this will keep the chips from sinking in the batter when you bake the cake).

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until very smooth. The directions say to bake at 350 in a well greased 12 cup bundt pan, for 50 to 55 minutes, but I opted for cupcakes and I baked them with paper cupcake liners at 350 for 25 minutes. Test with toothpick for doneness.

If you are using the bundt pan, the recipe says to cool the cake in the pan for at least 1½ hours before removing. Since I made cupcakes, I let them cool in the pan for about 5 minutes.

NOTE: This recipe calls for MINI chocolate chips because they do not sink like the full size chocolate chips tend to. However, today I used butterscotch chips (which do not come in the mini size) so I put them in the food processor and chopped them up and it worked well.

NOTE: Flavor combinations are endless. Next time, I'm trying a Cherry Chip cake mix + vanilla pudding + cherry mini baking chips (chips sold by King Arthur)...what a great idea for kids!!!  Other combos that sound good are chocolate cake + chocolate pudding + chocolate mint chips or even peanut butter chips....Just remember to run the chips through the food processor if they are full size chips.

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Strawberry Pudding with Chocolate 'Heart' Cookies for Valentine's Day

I just woke up yesterday morning, when...surprised !!! my daughter and husband showered me with Valentine's Day cards and lots of kisses. ohooo, I felt like it was a mother's day! Am I a queen of the day? uuups...I didn't prepare any cards for them. Silly me!
*Hhhm... my son was still under the blanket on his bed.



Wow, I felt like flying in the sky... love was blowing in the air. The surprises

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SWEET CHERRY COFFEE CAKE

This coffee cake is sweet, moist and perfect for Sunday morning. I made it with frozen dark sweet cherries, but it works just as well with fresh raspberries.

It is excellent warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

2 cups frozen dark sweet cherries (thawed and drained well)

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter room temperature
½ cup sliced almonds
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 cup sour cream

Thaw and drain the frozen dark sweet cherries completely (I put them in a colander overnight in the fridge). The next morning, drain completely, cut the cherries in half and mix with the brown sugar and almond extract. Set aside.

Beat butter till creamy, add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, add extracts and sour cream, mix well. Add dry ingredients and beat until smooth.

Spread 2/3 of the batter into greased 9" spring form pan. Top with fruit and then spoon dollops of the remaining 1/3 of the batter, over the fruit, like this:

Sprinkle the sliced almond over the top of everything and sprinkle it with a little cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Let the coffee cake cool in the pan for about 15 minute before removing it. Drizzle the cake with a simple vanilla glaze.

GLAZE
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

IMPORTANT NOTE: When you thaw the frozen dark sweet cherries, you will get a considerable amount of "juice". DO NOT USE that juice in this recipe (save it for a different recipe). However, after they are drained and you mix the cherries with the brown sugar and almond extract (after it sits a few minutes) you will get even MORE "juice"...make sure you use this extra juice in the recipe.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  This recipe calls for a 9" spring form pan, but you can make it in a regular 9" round cake pan. The spring form pan just makes for a prettier presentation. IF YOU USE A SPRING FORM PAN, make sure you wrap the bottom of the pan in foil, in case your pan does not have a super tight seal (I also set the whole thing on a baking sheet).

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My Favorite Waffles

Make these waffles in any type of waffle maker. 

Thick Belgian-style or thinner shaped waffles, like

my heart shaped waffle maker...they are all good. 

Serve with fresh strawberries and powdered sugar

 or warmed maple syrup....or both.

 Mix up the batter and let rest. 

 Spray and preheat a waffle iron.

Pour 1/3 C batter into the center. 

Close and bake until golden.

Keep waffles warm in the oven, along with your 

plates while you bake the rest.

One of the things I love about waffles is that 

unlike pancakes they freeze beautifully.

I always make the full recipe.

Then I can just pop them in the toaster oven to

reheat and enjoy again.

My Favorite Waffles

2 C flour

2 T sugar

1 T baking powder

1/4 t salt

Whisk together in a large bowl. 

~~~~~~~~~~

2 egg yolks

1-3/4 C milk

6 T butter, melted

Whisk together in another bowl, 

then combine with the flour mixture.

~~~~~~~~~

2 beaten egg whites

Fold into the combined batter. 

Let stand 20-30 minutes.

Pour 1/3 C batter in the center of sprayed and 

preheated waffle iron. Close lid and bake until

 golden, about 2-3 minutes.

Remove and keep warm on a plate in the oven, 

along with your plates while you make the

 rest. Freeze any leftover waffles and use 

a toaster oven to reheat again.

(tip: If you are in a hurry and do not want

to separate the eggs, you can just beat 

the whole eggs until frothy and proceed) 

Makes 10 waffles.

Enjoy!

Links: Designs By Gollum

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Dadar Gulung / Pancake Rolls with Coconut Filling

A couple of years ago, I read an article regarding pancake from around the globe in Martha Stewart Living Magazine. The article opened my eyes about the richness of the world of pancake. Some of them were familiar to my tongue, but I never imagined before those were the family of pancake. Some of them, were really new for me.I remembered when we lived in Malaysia, back in 2002-2005, we enjoyed

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CHEESE PUFFS (Gougeres)

Your guests will think you are a whiz in the kitchen when you serve these cheese puffs, but they are quick and easy to make and oh so good!!

Made from a basic cream puff dough and grated cheese, these bite size treats are FULL of air pockets and have a crispy-cheesy outer crust.  You can eat them right out of the oven, or get imaginative and fill them with anything savory.

1 cup milk

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

¼ teaspoon salt

pinch of cayenne pepper (or more if you like)

1 cup all purpose flour

3 large eggs at room temperature

½ teaspoon paprika (not the spicy kind)

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (not the powdered kind)

1½ cups grated Gruyere cheese (see note)

coarse salt to sprinkle on top (see note)

Combine the milk, butter, ¼ teaspoon salt and cayenne in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Once it starts to boil, remove it from the heat and add the flour all at once (mixing like crazy with a sturdy spatula) until the mixture comes together like this:

Return the pan to the heat and cook over medium heat for about a minute to dry out any excess moisture (stirring).

Remove from heat and put into a food processor and let it cool for five minutes. After the five minutes, process the dough for about 5 seconds. Add the paprika and eggs (one egg at a time) mixing well after each egg.

Remove from food processor and let dough cool for about 10 minutes. Mix in grated cheese and stir just enough to mix well.

Using a measuring tablespoon, scoop out a LEVEL TABLESPOON of the dough and push it off of the spoon (with your finger) onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet (try and keep the puffs as round as possible (but it isn’t critical).

Place them about 2” apart. Top each puff with a pinch of Parmesan and just a mini-pinch of coarse salt (see note below). Bake at 375° for 30 minutes (watch them the last 2 or 3 minutes so they don’t get too dark).

Serve warm or at room temperature. Just as soon as they come out of the oven, pierce the side of the puff with the tip of a small knife (to let any steam escape), this will keep them crispy longer.

Click on this photo to get a better look at the interior of the puffs

 NOTE: Make sure you have everything ready to go before you start making these puffs (cheese grated, flour measured, etc.) so that the liquid volume doesn’t boil away while you are grating your cheese, etc.

NOTE: Let the batter cool a little before you add the eggs so they don’t cook when they hit the hot dough.

NOTE: Lets talk about cheese. You can use any cheese you want but your results will vary significantly, depending on what kind you use.  The dough will puff up best when you use a hard, dry cheese.  If you use a wet cheese, like cheddar, your puffs MIGHT try to deflate when you take them out of the oven. They will still taste good, but they might not be crispy.

NOTE: If you are going to use the traditional Gruyere cheese…note that there are several different kinds of Gruyere. You want the dry hard one, not the semi-soft one.

NOTE ABOUT SALT: The recipe calls for a pinch of coarse salt on the top of each puff, but we don’t care for that…the Parmesan and Gruyere are pretty salty already.

This sounds like a lot of hassle, but once you make these, you will see that they are a snap and I have only one warning…they are addictive!!

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Quick Tomato Soup

You can have quick homemade tomato soup 

for lunch in 15 minutes.

 This recipe uses a 28-oz. can of crushed tomatoes.

 Serve topped with shredded Parmesan cheese.

Make yourself a grilled cheese sandwich and enjoy!

Quick Tomato Soup

1 T olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1-28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 C chicken broth

1 T lemon juice

1/2 t salt

1/2 t sugar

1/4 t pepper

2 T chopped fresh basil 

       or parsley

2 T butter

(optional 1/2 C cream for creamy tomato soup)

shredded Parmesan cheese for topping

Heat oil in medium saucepan and stir in the garlic. 

Heat until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Add the remaining 6 ingredients.
Simmer for 10 minutes. 

Stir in the butter and basil until melted. 

Add the optional cream if you want a creamy soup. 

Heat thoroughly. 

Serve sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.

Links: Designs By Gollum

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MINI BLUEBERRY CRUMB TARTS

I found this recipe, a while back, on The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch and decided to give it a try. I have used the pastry shell many times in other recipes like Pecan Tassies, but I never thought of using it with a fruit filling until Shelby's post....what a great idea!!

CRUST

3 ounces cream cheese (Shelby uses fat free)
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup all purpose flour

Mix until smooth, wrap in plastic and chill for an hour.  This dough is lovely and very easy to work with. While the dough is chilling, make the blueberry filling.

BLUEBERRY FILLING

4 cups of blueberries (if frozen - thaw and drain well)
Juice of one lemon
3/4 cup sugar (Shelby uses Splenda)
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1/8 cup cold water

Mix the blueberries, lemon juice and sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a slow boil and then whisk in the cornstarch slurry (cornstarch and water mixed together). Keep stiring so that lumps do not form. Continue to cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until very thick.  Remove from heat and let cool.

CRUMB TOPPING

1 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar (Shelby uses Splenda brown sugar)
3 tablespoons butter at room temperature

Work these ingredients together, with your fingers, until you get a soft crumbly texture.

NOTE: This makes a TON of crumb topping. I cut the ingredients in half and I STILL had too much topping, so I put the rest in the freezer for my next baking project.

ASSEMBLY

Roll the chilled dough into 1" balls (this recipe makes about 20-24 tarts). Place each ball of dough into ungreased mini-cupcake pan.

Use a tart tamper (or anything in your kitchen that has a large rounded end that you can use) to tamp down the dough, making sure the dough comes up on the sides of each tart. You can also use your fingers to make a depression in the dough ball and work the pastry crust up the sides of the tart well.

Fill each tart with the cooled blueberry filling and a generous teaspoon of the crumb topping.

Bake in a pre-heated 375 oven for 15-20 minutes (my oven took 25 minutes) or until the crust gets a nice golden color. Let the tarts COOL IN THE PAN for 10-15 minutes before lifting them out.

NOTE: I love versatile recipes like this one. I think ANY fruit filling would work well here; I'm trying apple next!!

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Cranberry Orange Muffins

This is a nice winter muffin. 

Good during Christmas thru Valentine's Day.

I had a bag of cranberries in the freezer.

 You'll need 1 cup. Cut them in half.

 Ingredients.

 I use a  microplane to get 1 T of orange zest. 

Use your 20% off coupon at BBB and get one. 

They are great. 

 Dry ingredients in one  bowl, wet in another.

 Combine the two but don't over mix.

Stir in the cranberries.

 I'm using heart shaped silicone cupcake molds.

Use your 40% coupon for these at the crafts store.

 Spray with Pam before filling. 

 Not too full (see the line) or they will lose their 

heart shape after baking. I sprinkled some of the

tops with cinnamon sugar. The pink ones.

After baking, let cool 5 minutes. 

They pop right out of the silicone hearts.

 Wash the cups in soapy water or the dishwasher

 and use over and over.

I piled mine into a milk glass bowl as

part of my Valentine kitchen decor.

Then I will stack them and store 

in a glass container.

 The heart shapes were small so I had batter left 

to make two jumbo muffins in glass custard cups.

Store some in the freezer.

But be sure to have one still warm from the oven!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

2-1/2 C flour

1 C sugar

2 t baking soda

Combine in a medium bowl

___________

1/2 C butter (1 stick), melted

2 eggs

3/4 C orange juice

1 T grated orange zest

Whisk together.

Stir into dry ingredients and mix just until

combined. Do not over mix.

Stir in:

1 C cranberries, cut in half

Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin tins

Sprinkle the tops of some with:

cinnamon sugar

Bake @350 for 20-25 minutes.

Makes 12-15 muffins

Enjoy!

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